At least five people died and more than 80 were missing after a fire on a passenger ferry in the western Philippines on Wednesday, the coast guard said.
The June Aster was carrying 134 people, including 17 crew members, from Manila to Coron, an island in Palawan Province, said Capt. Noemi Cayabyab, a Philippine Coast Guard spokeswoman. The fire broke out around 6:45 p.m. near the village of Marcilla on Coron.
As of Thursday morning, 43 people had been rescued, the captain said, adding that the coast guard was working to extinguish the fire as it searched for the 86 who remained missing. The dead have not yet been identified and the cause of fire is still under investigation.
“There were bodies floating on the water,” one of the survivors, Benjamin Indic, said by telephone from a hospital in Coron. “The rescuer said, ‘let’s focus on those who are alive so we can take them to the hospital.’”
Rescue efforts were hampered by the conditions at sea, Captain Cayabyab said. The vessel had drifted nearly eight nautical miles away from its initial distress location.
“That was our challenge last night,” she said in a radio interview with local media. “The weather was bad and the waves were strong.”
For Mr. Indic, a 60-year-old fisherman, the fire compounded a personal tragedy. Traveling with his daughter and son-in-law, he was aboard the June Aster to take his wife’s body home to Coron for burial. He believed that her coffin, which had been in the cargo area, had been burned in the fire.
His daughter Joana Indic, 29, who is two months pregnant with her first child, is among those missing, Mr. Indic said. Her husband, Domingo Suner Jr., is in the hospital fighting for his life.
“When my wife died in Manila, I let go of the pain and did not carry it back with me to Palawan,” Mr. Indic said. “But now with this fire, it has happened to us all over again. That’s why it hurts so much. I still cannot find my daughter.”
Mr. Indic said that he had been chatting with Joana after dinner when a plume of black smoke engulfed the vessel. They started sending messages to their relatives telling them they were about to disembark. Then Joana screamed, “Papa, fire!”
The smoke was so dark he couldn’t see, he said. He described hearing people scream and said his first thought was to escape. The next thing he knew, he said, he was in the water watching the June Aster burn.
The ferry, which left the Baseco port area in Manila, was supposed to arrive at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Coron, a popular diving destination known for its limestone cliffs and clear waters.
Captain Cayabyab said that the government was trying to identify where the missing might have drifted to. She also appealed to the families to report the names of any relatives they believe might be missing.
“We are now putting all available assets and resources on the area to locate the missing individuals,” Captain Cayabyab said.
The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, frequently suffers from maritime accidents. In January, at least 65 people died after a ferry sank in the southern Philippines.
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